From Life in Prison to Life of Purpose: Chris Wilson's Journey
00;00;10;21 - 00;00;28;12
Rob Lee
Welcome to the truth in this art. I am your host, Rob Lee. And today my guest is a social entrepreneur, a storyteller, artist, social justice advocate, and the author of The Master Plan My Journey from a Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose. Please welcome Chris Wilson. Welcome to the.
00;00;28;12 - 00;00;30;06
Chris Wilson
Podcast. Thanks for having me.
00;00;30;19 - 00;00;54;10
Rob Lee
Thank you for joining the podcast. And yeah, I think this is one long awaited conversation and a conversation I've been looking forward to. Got a little nerves on it. But we're good. We're good. So before we get too deep into the conversation and I want to open it up to kind of that that general question almost in an elevator pitch short sort of way, what is the Chris Wilson story?
00;00;54;10 - 00;01;00;25
Rob Lee
And, you know, what was that first experience with art? Because that's what I knew you from initially.
00;01;01;08 - 00;01;42;03
Chris Wilson
Yes. Sure. So I my story essentially, I'm originally I'm born and raised in Washington, D.C. and I grew up in the late eighties, early nineties era, the old DC, the real DC identity. It changed since then. And so I grew up spending my weekends with my mom, but my grandparents raised me Monday through Friday in Washington, D.C. and I set my weekends when my mom and my mom at the time was in a very abusive relationship with a police officer, a cricket cop, kind of like a Denzel Washington and Training Day, just a real smooth, charismatic person, but just was, you know, just wasn't a good person.
00;01;42;14 - 00;02;03;15
Chris Wilson
And so he would verbally and physically abuse us and one day he attacked me and my mom and tried to kill us. Sexually assaulted my mom in front of me. Well, we survived, but he was arrested. He lost his job, and he came home and he started stalking us. And back then, there was no law against stalking. So this was like Cape Fear.
00;02;03;15 - 00;02;30;08
Chris Wilson
What, like Robert DeNiro. And he's like, you know, if he broke in the house one time and fell to the ceiling, we would call the police. And because he used to be a police officer, he got all these like special, you know, get out of jail free passes that he would like implement. But fast forward, he ended up being responsible for the loss of my cousin, which when he was gunned down in front of a house, they shot my brother and I started carrying a firearm back then and for protection.
00;02;30;28 - 00;02;50;26
Chris Wilson
And then not too long after this, a man came after me and I ended up taking a person's life. And I was found guilty, charged as an adult at 17, and sentenced to naturally life in prison. And that's kind of what, you know, my time in prison was like the transformation of when I made a decision to turn my life around, which my book is about.
00;02;51;25 - 00;03;04;08
Rob Lee
Thank you. Well, we get we got really got really into the real stories like. Oh, yeah. And I mean, I'm I'm glad that you're you're here. You know, this is one of those things.
00;03;04;21 - 00;03;24;01
Chris Wilson
Yeah, me too. And we actually also help more Instagram a lot in social media, but and I live every day, as, you know, like it's a vacation because I really appreciate life because I spent almost half of my life in prison just dreaming about the life that I live now. And so I try to enjoy every second of it.
00;03;24;17 - 00;03;35;07
Rob Lee
And as and that's why you're like a firefighter, as you were saying before we got to start, it's like I'm going to the next thing like where we at. So let's, let's start, let's talk about art a little bit.
00;03;35;19 - 00;03;35;27
Chris Wilson
Yes.
00;03;36;05 - 00;03;51;22
Rob Lee
So as an art is like when did you know who you were? And I know that that's kind of one of those those questions that seems like it's a little vague, but when did you know who you were as an artist? And tell me about like, you know, your work that you were doing before you made that discovery?
00;03;52;12 - 00;04;10;12
Chris Wilson
Yeah, absolute reality is strange because I think back to College of Art history was a prerequisite then that we had we had to take in order to graduate college. And I complained about this big sick art book that I had to read. And I was like, This is so boring. I have no interest in it. I don't understand it.
00;04;11;13 - 00;04;41;24
Chris Wilson
But fast forward some years when I was out of prison and I started designing furniture and doing contracting work and I was surrounded by a lot of artists and I was transporting art for people from like Baltimore to New York. Jeffrey Kent was one. Paul Walker, Darryl Gibbs, I mean, many artists that I would do work for. And then when I would get off work, I would go to the studios where they paint and they would tell me about what the work was about.
00;04;41;27 - 00;05;03;06
Chris Wilson
And that's that's what kind of intrigued me for a long time about, you know, about race in America, about black culture, about, you know, all Kansas oppression. And, you know, maybe a year after that of of doing that, Jeffrey Camp for my birthday gifted me some art lessons. And he was like, Is something in you? I was like, Why can't you give me some money for my birthday?
00;05;03;17 - 00;05;15;09
Chris Wilson
So he says, You have something in you and I want to give you some lessons. And I took he said five lessons. I took two and I fell in love with art. And I just I've been painting every day ever since.
00;05;15;18 - 00;05;31;16
Rob Lee
Well, it takes that it takes that person that's kind of like they see it now. Like, I could give you this, but it's like there's a joke that I like where if someone was given a bunch of money, like, who's going to start a business and who's going to buy a bunch of sneakers? And was like, I don't know.
00;05;31;16 - 00;05;52;10
Rob Lee
I don't know. But I think when you have when you're one of those kind of like earlier stages and you're like, I'm doing this and there's a person that's like around that, there's in that kind of capacity of being a, a big brother or a relative or someone in that sort of like role. And they're like, No, I'm going to give you this.
00;05;52;18 - 00;06;24;18
Rob Lee
I see this in you already. And I look in my closet. I have this book, these, this, this bag actually that has several books in it from my like my grandmother, my and my uncle and all of that stuff. And it's all like art books. Yeah. Going back to like 1990, there's like, yeah, you know, you're five, but you're going to be a next great artist or what have you in that, you know, it was kind of that, that sort of like motivation we can afford like lessons or something, but it was they kind of nudge like go after it and you know, putting you in a position or giving you the just the umph
00;06;24;18 - 00;06;25;12
Rob Lee
to go for it.
00;06;26;12 - 00;06;31;00
Chris Wilson
Yeah, totally. I mean that was the relationship with Jeffrey and still there's the relationship with a.
00;06;32;09 - 00;06;55;19
Rob Lee
Shout out to Jeffrey. So I read recently that it's important I knew it, but I like reread it. It's important to diversify how we work. So so your medium is mostly in like what space? Like or are you in digital or are you an analog and so on. So if we're doing digital work, we should kind of implement analog work.
00;06;55;19 - 00;07;08;16
Rob Lee
And if we're doing mostly analog work, we should try to work in digital, kind of break out of these habits. How do you manage like how much digital stuff that's within your process? Because I see that you're painting, so that's more of an analog kind of process.
00;07;08;16 - 00;07;33;21
Chris Wilson
That's a good question. So I kind of my preference is not to put myself in a box, but but it's mostly mostly painting. I think every day I do drawings, but I'm also involved in film. I've been producing short films for a couple of years now, and my latest film, The Box, is about solitary confinement. We just we won seven film festivals and I just sold it to New York Times.
00;07;34;14 - 00;07;58;26
Chris Wilson
So I'm excited for people to see that. But, you know, I work in fabrics and anything. I think I just have this creative urge to express myself to to art. And, you know, I started originally by doing sculptural work and went to Italy to study, but just the painting, just like that's my vibe right now. And I'm going to do my abstract space and I want to tell stories using colors.
00;07;59;08 - 00;08;05;04
Rob Lee
Yeah, I'm going to have a question about colors for you then, because whenever someone's like, Yeah, you know, colors really interest me right now.
00;08;05;09 - 00;08;06;05
Chris Wilson
All right.
00;08;06;05 - 00;08;11;05
Rob Lee
Well, what if colors were a mood? What's your mood right now? What mood are you in right now?
00;08;11;19 - 00;08;14;16
Chris Wilson
I totally. Oh, yeah. Let's let's dove into it. Yes.
00;08;14;26 - 00;08;33;04
Rob Lee
Yeah. So I want to go back I want to go back into like our questions and things of that nature. But I think one of the things that's important, especially like now, I think we all got this awakening right of, you know, you got to be here to do things that are regenerative, you know, do things that serve you, that refill your cup.
00;08;33;11 - 00;08;46;20
Rob Lee
So we're sort of practices. Do you have when you're out there, you're everywhere. You know, what sort of practices do you have in mind that are regenerative for you? Because people are taking people are needing time from you, needing pieces of you. So how do you regenerate yourself?
00;08;47;13 - 00;09;12;22
Chris Wilson
I think I mean, I like this question. I think my role as an artist is I witness history and I just document what I see and what I feel. And every piece of art that I create is about something. So this there's something that I'm trying to say, Oh, there's something that I've seen that I am a story that I'm trying to convey to everyone else that that I witness.
00;09;13;02 - 00;09;35;04
Chris Wilson
And so a lot of travel, a lot of listening. I spent some time recently in the Middle East and I'm going back in October, but just a lot of time listen and you know, I was in, you know, the Palestinian refugee camps and in Gaza and in Tel Aviv and at the Dead Sea. And just thinking about history and religion and and what those things mean to me.
00;09;35;04 - 00;09;59;11
Chris Wilson
But also, there was also like two terrorist attacks when I was over there. And it's like I do know how do I tell a story about my experience or what I've witnessed and put that, you know, on a canvas or put that on film. So a large chunk of my time is reading, going online. And it's one of the things that Jeffrey taught me is like any body of work that you make, you have to be able to defend it.
00;09;59;11 - 00;10;19;19
Chris Wilson
So if I'm making a piece of work about solitary confinement in America, I need to go online. I need to read books and figure out what is that? What is the pulse of solitary confinement in this country and what does the United Nations say and how many people have I talked to who've been in solitary confinement? So this is a responsibility to do my homework so that I can defend my work.
00;10;20;02 - 00;10;37;16
Chris Wilson
And so I spend a lot of time exploring, researching and learning and so so that I can tell the accurate story through my medium. Yeah. And I love it. Doesn't even really feel like work to me, but it's just it's a responsibility that I have to do.
00;10;38;08 - 00;11;04;25
Rob Lee
Yeah. Is one of those questions I have of like how do you make work feel like play and vice versa. And yeah, it's that's, that's importantly, you know, when you're able to go out and kind of learn something from it that fills you up as an individual, like, okay, I'm getting this and I'm able to incorporate this in my work, these experiences, whether they're ideal or an ideal, but you're getting those experiences that are baked into which are which are ultimately putting out.
00;11;05;12 - 00;11;07;16
Chris Wilson
Right? Totally. I agree 100%.
00;11;08;11 - 00;11;32;09
Rob Lee
So now in your work and you're you're multiple media author, you know, you've done some painting, all of the things you like. Yeah, I got this new whatever, whatever the new way that is. Right. So I think sometimes our work is looked at through the constraints that we put in there. So what sorts of constraints do you put in your work?
00;11;32;09 - 00;11;53;06
Rob Lee
For instance, some people may only paint with a certain color, some people may only use certain words and omit other words. Or I want I want to use part of this story I'm on going to shoot with this sort of camera. What sort of constraints do you put in your work? And if if you are putting constraints in there, why do you put them in?
00;11;53;06 - 00;12;20;17
Chris Wilson
I guess I've never been asked this question before and I'm going to do my best to answer this so that but there are there are some constraints. So for me, I don't I don't paint images of dead black people. I think it's inappropriate. So so I don't do that. I can I can tell the story, but it's just something about it that I just feel like it's inappropriate.
00;12;20;17 - 00;12;40;06
Chris Wilson
Someone someone passes away like a George Floyd, for example, in 2020, I won't paint his face and make a body of work about that. And it's like a constraint. I just don't feel like and I wouldn't want to. I sell my paintings all around the world. I wouldn't want to make money off of the images of dead black people.
00;12;40;06 - 00;12;58;27
Chris Wilson
That's just something I won't do that. But but there's ways I can tell stories about them. But that's that's a constraint that I just I won't do that. I don't do commissions, so I don't I don't allow anyone to tell me what I should paint. You know, you either like it, you don't like it. I make the work.
00;12;59;11 - 00;13;17;21
Chris Wilson
You know, you can accept it or not accept it, but but other than that, I think it's. It's a lot of freedom. Yeah. I'm new to the game. I've been painting for about eight and a half years. All of my art. As soon as I said this yesterday to one of my artist friends, all of my artist friends are technically better than me.
00;13;17;29 - 00;13;34;24
Chris Wilson
And their painting skills. But that's that's not what defines a successful artist. So it's not really about the technical skills. The world is filled with technically proficient artists, so I bring a little more to the table as an artist, which is why I believe I've been able to be successful.
00;13;35;19 - 00;13;57;02
Rob Lee
That's that's a legit. I remember having a conversation with a curator here in Baltimore. I'm Thomas James. And we were talking about like, you know, people having technical skills or like, what am I feeling from the work, what have you? And, you know, that's that's the thing that I think is big. And sometimes it's a cultural thing, sometimes it's an experience thing.
00;13;57;12 - 00;14;02;10
Rob Lee
It's like, Oh yeah, I got great line strokes in my use of color is amazing, but it doesn't say anything.
00;14;02;10 - 00;14;05;00
Chris Wilson
It right. Flat. Right, exactly.
00;14;06;00 - 00;14;28;05
Rob Lee
So you mentioned other artists that you're around. I got to ask you this one and this one, you know, might be a little a little weird artists smoke, who knows? But what types of artists do you find to be like the best hangs like who the artists like I like to hang out with photographers or I like to hang out with painters and if whatever they might be, why are they really cool to hang out with?
00;14;28;05 - 00;14;50;20
Chris Wilson
I like this question, you know, so Jeffrey Kent is an obvious one, but I'm a pensioner too. More so and I'll elaborate. Why so? Jeffrey Kent, Jerald Gibbs, Amy, Cheryl, Monica who who's I'm a mess up her last name and she'll she'll beat me up I messed up but Monica is a really pretty awesome old painter.
00;14;52;20 - 00;15;15;27
Chris Wilson
Well, Watson and the reason I like I like artists, so I paint also house music. So I like to listen to music and get my vibe going. Yeah, yeah. I'm not working unless the house music is bop. And so that and just the artist's life. I like to go out and eat with my artist friends. We talk about the industry, all aspects of the business.
00;15;15;27 - 00;15;44;24
Chris Wilson
The curators like the shows, and I just think it's a beautiful, a beautiful life to live. But really, really, it's the music and the vibes and, you know, all my artist friends are cool, so they're just nice to be around and we vibe and we travel around the world together and I just think it's amazing. That's the thing that I always say about my fellow Baltimore artists is that we have some really dope artists, some of the best in the world.
00;15;45;11 - 00;15;47;25
Rob Lee
Yeah. So is it Monica Cadwell?
00;15;48;05 - 00;15;51;12
Chris Wilson
Yes. Yeah. So last name. But yeah, that's my closest.
00;15;52;09 - 00;15;57;16
Rob Lee
So I've interviewed all of them with the exception of Baby, I'm on 80. Let's. Let's make it happen. What's going on.
00;15;57;22 - 00;15;58;21
Chris Wilson
In your head?
00;15;58;21 - 00;16;18;08
Rob Lee
Yeah, yeah. Monica is great, and I might be showing up in the thing sooner or later, you know? We'll see. We'll see. So let's talk about social entrepreneurship a little bit and why was that? A Well, how do you define social entrepreneurship and why did it resonate with you?
00;16;19;00 - 00;16;43;15
Chris Wilson
Sure. When I was in prison and back when I was about 19, I was two years into my out to my life sentence. I've always been an entrepreneur in my entire life selling candy, cutting grass, paper routes, anything that you can think of. I was hustling and doing it my entire life and when I got in prison, I started to I started to understand the system that was set up against us, like black folks specifically.
00;16;44;00 - 00;17;02;28
Chris Wilson
And I always knew that I was entrepreneur and I knew that that's what I wanted to be. So I started to think about who would I be like years from now, age 40. I knew I wanted to be entrepreneurial, but I also thought back to what my grandfather used to tell me about about the struggle of growing up in Mississippi and the racism.
00;17;03;07 - 00;17;23;01
Chris Wilson
And so I knew that I wanted to help people. And so I didn't know what the term social entrepreneurship meant so many years later. But I wrote all my masterplan. I want to start a business that helps people. I want to build this business empire, but I want to create jobs for people. And I was thinking about the conversations, like my uncles and my school counselors would tell us, You can do anything you want in life.
00;17;23;01 - 00;17;38;04
Chris Wilson
You can you can get a job, you can start your own business, and then it would leak. And I said, Well, I don't even know the first thing about starting a business or even getting a job or writing a resume. And so when I wrote up my plan, I said, I want to be the person that that doesn't leave the community.
00;17;38;04 - 00;17;59;05
Chris Wilson
That will go in on a Sunday and sit down with people and walk them, step through, step of how to build something, how to do something or be the inspiration for folks. And so that was that was the feeling at age 19. And so I was released from prison at age 32 and so I went back to college, I went to business school, and I discovered the terminology of social entrepreneurship.
00;17;59;05 - 00;18;15;29
Chris Wilson
And it's, you know, it's triple bottom line. You know, you make profit, you can improve your environment and you can help people. And so I just started operating from that principle. If it wasn't a gig like when I had my construction company, if it wasn't all my men and women working on the site and being paid, I was walking away.
00;18;16;10 - 00;18;27;20
Chris Wilson
Yeah. And so everything that I do in life, even with my art sales, like I take majority of my proceeds and I put it towards some good. So I define myself as a social entrepreneur to here.
00;18;27;28 - 00;18;46;17
Rob Lee
And yeah, it's, it's one of those terms that people are using. We use impact and all of that. And when sometimes the proof isn't in the pudding, but the way that you're describing it, you broke it down in a real sense of this is tangible, this is real, this is how I want to do it. And I think a lot of times when people describe it, they're very nebulous.
00;18;46;20 - 00;18;49;04
Rob Lee
You were not you were very to the point. So much appreciated.
00;18;49;13 - 00;18;50;05
Chris Wilson
That. Thank you.
00;18;51;08 - 00;19;13;18
Rob Lee
So I got two more real questions, but I definitely want to keep it on, you know, the master plan. Let's talk about the master plan. What was the process of bringing everything together like, you know, and what's the how has it been received? Because, you know, I've been on the site. I've seen like, you know, luminaries saying great things in great terms about the about the book or what have you.
00;19;13;18 - 00;19;22;24
Rob Lee
So so tell me about it. Like from from your vantage point, as as the writer, as the person that these are your experiences and these are your ideas. What was the process and how was it been received?
00;19;23;27 - 00;19;42;05
Chris Wilson
Sure. So I've been journaling since I was ten years old and when I went away I journaled every day, I still journal every day. And so I wrote down at the age of 19 that I wanted to publish a book that inspired people. And it was tricky for me because at the time that I wrote it down, I said that I wanted to write this book.
00;19;42;05 - 00;20;00;12
Chris Wilson
I hadn't done anything really positive in my life. I essentially messed up my whole life up until like that age, but it also gave me some motivation to do some good in the world, do some good to myself and understand myself. And so I wrote up this plan and sent the copy to my grandmother and to my judge.
00;20;00;12 - 00;20;22;23
Chris Wilson
And so they became my accountability partners. So I started setting goals for myself. I wanted to get a high school diploma, a college degree. I wanted to embrace therapy and learn and learn about myself and study business. And so I started doing all these things. And fast forward to maybe 2013. I've been home for about a year and some change and I had started.
00;20;22;26 - 00;20;39;16
Chris Wilson
I had two companies at this time. I was in business school. I had won a bunch of awards, including the presidential award from Obama. As I was doing the work and I was at a point in my life where I was doing what I planned to do. And so I felt I was ready or worthy to be able to tell my story at that point.
00;20;39;16 - 00;21;00;14
Chris Wilson
And so I worked really hard to get a book deal and it required me for a couple of months just jumping on the boat bus in Baltimore and going up to New York and just just for meetings and calls and just trying to trying to negotiate a deal. And it took me two and a half months and I was able to get a book deal and publish my story and it's been wildly successful.
00;21;00;14 - 00;21;22;02
Chris Wilson
And, you know, I sold the book in other countries as I traveled all over the country, all over the world, actually. And it changed my life. And I'm happy to say that the book is changing other people's lives because I've turned the book into a course that's now in and over 100 presents. We started at Rikers Island and people had taken a course and graduated from it.
00;21;22;02 - 00;21;32;26
Chris Wilson
And I get messages every single day of people like I'm the next Chris Wilson. I'm going to do it better than you. Watch what I do and I'm just like, Okay, I'm reading more books than you. I was like, I don't think so, but okay, I like it.
00;21;33;21 - 00;21;42;20
Rob Lee
That's that's beautiful, man. I love hearing that. Oh, wow. That's that's great. I mean, I'm just I'm sitting here like, wow, I'm inspired. I mean, I, like, shout out to you my.
00;21;43;02 - 00;21;43;26
Chris Wilson
Thank you, thank you.
00;21;44;11 - 00;22;02;24
Rob Lee
So I got so this is the last one I got for you. And this may be one of the deeper ones, but we'll see. I think the nature of the question is kind of that in the self. So sometimes there is we see the peak of something and there's a much larger body under it. So it's almost like a warning or indication for us to dig deeper.
00;22;03;05 - 00;22;17;22
Rob Lee
So when did you know that you've gone deep enough on a topic whether you're exploring it through painting, whether you're exploring it in film or in writing, when do you know that you have had bedrock or when do you know that you're going to dig deeper?
00;22;17;22 - 00;22;50;14
Chris Wilson
Wow, that is a deep question. I think. Speaking of art and painting, I oftentimes describe it as a weapon. My choice of weapons, like the paint brushes or the pastel pencils or sticks. And I think I'm I think I'm deep enough. Usually when I make work, I have some type of purpose of it. I made a few big paintings recently about solitary confinement after eating about a thousand letters from people who are currently or were formerly in solitary confinement.
00;22;50;29 - 00;23;23;22
Chris Wilson
And I made a decision, okay, I'm gonna make this big painting. I think it's $30,000 painting and percentage of the proceeds. I might donate to Solitary Watch and another organization who advocate against solitary confinement and I just having that thought in my mind. I put my house music on and I just worked I worked in a painting. I dug deep and and I thought about, you know, with a night and nations said about solitary confinement is torture and amplifying the voices of people who are advocating against this practice.
00;23;24;08 - 00;23;48;02
Chris Wilson
I think in a situation like that, I feel like it is deep enough. Yeah, but I also, I also it's almost like a Trojan horse kind of thing. Like I also make like recently I've been making abstract style, colorful pastel style paintings that are about really serious issues. I want you to look at and say, this is really beautiful, but what is it about in this light?
00;23;48;02 - 00;24;00;20
Chris Wilson
Oh, that's actually really deep. And if I can do that, I think I think of Chief, my my mission, my objective, if I can do that. So I try to do that. And as soon as you the purpose of everything I do.
00;24;01;22 - 00;24;16;20
Rob Lee
Then thank you. Thank you. Thank you for you got into it. You didn't you didn't let the iceberg, you know, get you. All right. All right. So that's that's kind of the end of the real questions and thank you for indulge me and that's that's out of it now. It's going to get weird and it's going to get weird.
00;24;18;03 - 00;24;20;00
Rob Lee
So I want to start off with a softball for you.
00;24;20;09 - 00;24;22;18
Chris Wilson
Okay.
00;24;22;18 - 00;24;28;23
Rob Lee
Name my house music song. Oh, it might not be a song for you like so many.
00;24;29;25 - 00;24;57;10
Chris Wilson
So what was I just playing? I was. So I went to the store to get some coffee. She she was saying is a deejay that I really like. I do a lot of SoundCloud and Spotify mixes, but I think that's that's what I was playing today. I actually I actually really love Baltimore house music, too. And and every chance I get, I go out and I dance in Baltimore.
00;24;57;11 - 00;25;05;04
Chris Wilson
I used to go to the crown on Saturday, Sunday nights, 12:30 a.m.. I would go and I would dance, so a m Yeah.
00;25;05;17 - 00;25;05;24
Rob Lee
Yeah.
00;25;05;24 - 00;25;17;17
Chris Wilson
Oh yeah. So I can't really think of any songs. I have a lot of mixes, but all of the artists, friends, we all share house music every day. Like in a group chat. I check this out and so I love it.
00;25;18;00 - 00;25;33;17
Rob Lee
I remember it was this time I was going to Chicago and they have their own, you know. Yes. And I was like, all right, Frankie Knuckles, let's go and just just end it. And I was like, if I'm going and this first time going and I was like, if I'm going into the city, I was like, I got to play, like, this soundtrack, hit it in, you know, for sure.
00;25;33;23 - 00;25;36;16
Chris Wilson
Sure. Yeah, Chicago. Got it, got it. And like, they get it.
00;25;36;16 - 00;25;42;22
Rob Lee
And so you mentioned a second ago it hurt your coffee guy. That's great. How do you take your coffee?
00;25;44;00 - 00;26;02;27
Chris Wilson
Just cream and sugar and sugar. I'm not a big coffee drinker, but I do drink it like every morning I kind of start off from early bird. I get up around four or five and I think I'll have my cup around 830. And then I usually start my day because I work out and cycle and do stuff like that in the morning, but I usually start my days around ten a.
00;26;03;19 - 00;26;20;01
Rob Lee
M I envy that. Oh my God. I mean, yeah. I mean, I'm up relatively early. I'm not up before. I'm a bit like maybe six something and I joke with people and I was like, You're a wild man. My God, I'll see you later. I'll have a shot. A shot of whiskey as a pre-workout. You're like crazy person.
00;26;20;03 - 00;26;20;13
Chris Wilson
Yeah.
00;26;20;18 - 00;26;21;23
Rob Lee
Or black coffee?
00;26;22;05 - 00;26;24;14
Chris Wilson
Yeah.
00;26;24;14 - 00;26;25;23
Rob Lee
What's your favorite vacation spot?
00;26;26;19 - 00;26;51;04
Chris Wilson
Oh, so this this is a good question. So there's a secret island that I go to all the time. I'm actually flying in tomorrow morning. It's on a San Andreas off the coast in Nicaragua. So it's it's a Colombian island, but it's not really close to Colombia. So it's about an hour away from Cartagena. Yeah, I usually go to it's super, super cheap and it's like a world one that is so beautiful.
00;26;51;04 - 00;27;05;00
Chris Wilson
You get island hot is so affordable. So a Colombians usually go there for vacation. So I go there and just relax and live my best life. I speak Spanish, I blend in. I, you know, it's great.
00;27;05;21 - 00;27;13;05
Rob Lee
I need to take my Spanish lessons. I need to start. I need to take a day of vacation. I'll tell you that we talked about color a little bit earlier.
00;27;13;07 - 00;27;13;19
Chris Wilson
Yeah.
00;27;13;27 - 00;27;33;02
Rob Lee
What is and I know is going to be a challenging one, but what is the most commonly used color that you're using at this moment? Like if someone were to look at like your clothes and it's like, all right, I see a lot of that color on your thing. And for that color, what does it represent? What are the thoughts around that color?
00;27;33;29 - 00;28;08;21
Chris Wilson
Oh, this is good. So it's it's pink or magenta. So and it doesn't always, always necessarily mesh with with the color palette that I'm working with, but I always try to sneak it. And so it's been my favorite color for about two years now. And I've been studying Colored Fairy and Pink, what it symbolizes and the color fairy is the need to help you think about breast cancer.
00;28;08;21 - 00;28;33;02
Chris Wilson
So breast cancer, like the bow is pink. So it's pink like this is this is a mission to help and to serve others. And so pink symbolizes that. And I try to I try to weave it in like pink dress shirt under my suits or pink tie and just no pink roses sometimes. And so that's my color and that's what I'm rocking went for, right now for the next couple of years, I think.
00;28;33;02 - 00;28;33;22
Chris Wilson
So I like it.
00;28;34;05 - 00;28;44;12
Rob Lee
I'm going to do some some deep dove into color there. And thank you for sharing that because I got like two that I'm always wearing and it's like, all right, what message I'm putting out. There's a lot of burgundy, a lot of gray.
00;28;44;22 - 00;28;45;06
Chris Wilson
Okay?
00;28;45;10 - 00;28;47;14
Rob Lee
You're just a villain. That's what you put together, actually.
00;28;47;14 - 00;28;47;23
Chris Wilson
Yeah.
00;28;48;11 - 00;29;00;21
Rob Lee
You're a movie villainess. Oxblood is not burgundy. That was the last one. I got it for you. So do you think you could win a game show? And if so, what would the game show be?
00;29;00;21 - 00;29;20;23
Chris Wilson
I believe I could win a game show and I think it would be our geography. I was real when I was in prison. I had a ritual of watching sound field every day. I think I like seven. And then at 730, Jeopardy game or, you know, Jeopardy! I would play Jeopardy just in the rec room and just answer questions.
00;29;21;04 - 00;29;23;06
Chris Wilson
But really, really good at geography.
00;29;23;15 - 00;29;30;10
Rob Lee
Yeah, I'm definitely a Jeopardy! Guy, too. I asked this question to someone yesterday. I was like, What's one for you? I was like, Jeopardy for nerd.
00;29;30;17 - 00;29;31;17
Chris Wilson
Yeah, sure.
00;29;32;04 - 00;29;44;17
Rob Lee
You know, I just know random trivia. So with that being said, thank you for coming on to this podcast. And I want to invite and encourage you to tell the folks anything that you feel like we missed here. The floor is your share, whatever you want to share.
00;29;44;29 - 00;30;09;10
Chris Wilson
Thank you. I appreciate you having me on. I would encourage people to follow my journey through the work that I do through my Instagram page, Chris Wilson's Life, also through my foundation's website, Chris Wilson Foundation dot com. We're doing a lot of important work to present education, support and other artists financial literacy and helping people return as citizens get on their feet.
00;30;09;10 - 00;30;13;10
Chris Wilson
And so I just encourage people to support any way that they can.
00;30;13;20 - 00;30;37;27
Rob Lee
So there you have it, folks. I want to again thank Chris Wilson, social entrepreneur, artist, storyteller, everything for coming on to the podcast because you're doing everything and for my plea saying that there is art and social change in around Baltimore, you just got to look for it.
